Trans Mountain: Ottawa won’t tolerate delays

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr says if British Columbia’s government wants to launch further consultations linked to the Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion, the province can, but Ottawa won’t tolerate “unusual or unnecessary delays” on the project.

In an interview with Global News, Carr noted, “if there are attempts at unusual or unnecessary delay, the National Energy Board has the tools available to make sure that these decisions are made in a timely way.”

The pipeline, which has been given the green light by Ottawa, also receives the support of the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau is standing his ground on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion as Alberta feuds with B.C. over new restrictions on shipments of bitumen that would flow through pipeline networks from Alberta to the West Coast.

"We have a federal government to look out for the national interest above various disagreements within the provinces and we did exactly that on the Trans Mountain pipeline," Trudeau said in an interview on Thursday last week.

"I'm not going to opine on disagreements between the provinces in this case.”

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has threatened legal action and economic sanctions in retaliation against new spill restrictions in B.C., which would create another roadblock for the already-delayed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.

The CAN$7.4-billion project was approved by the federal government in 2016.

"We know that getting our oil resources to new markets across the Pacific is absolutely essential," Trudeau said.

"We can't continue to be trapped with the price differential we have in the American market. We need this pipeline and we're going to move forward with it responsibly like I committed to."